Water-based surfactant formulations normally have a very limited uptake capacity for care components, such as oils and waxes. If the transparency and the thermodynamic stability of the surfactant formulation are to be maintained, only small quantities of oils or waxes can be incorporated, based on the weight of the surfactant. An exception are microemulsions of which some allow the incorporation of more than 100% by weight of oils, based on surfactant. However, microemulsions are low in viscosity while their stability is highly temperature-dependent according to the type of surfactant used. The low viscosity of microemulsions seriously restricts their scope of application in cosmetic products, because a high viscosity is required for feel and for application of the cosmetic product to the body.
The use of the usual thickeners also involves disadvantages because they can be deposited on the skin and hair and the thickened preparations often do not have the required stability.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention was to provide cosmetic surfactant-containing gel formulations which would contain oil and/or waxes and which would be stable without the use of thickeners. The gels would have high dimensional stability and would be transparent or slightly opaque in appearance. In addition, they would have a very good feeling on the skin.